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Sunday, May 13, 2012

DIY Body/Foot/Hand Scrub

Happy Mother's Day, all you beautiful mommas!! Honesty, I wanted to post this sooner, and as I type this it's actually Tuesday, the 8th. But, these were the actual gifts I made for my momma, step-momma, and mother in law. And they all read this. There's no way I wanted to give away my present to them before they got them! By the time you're reading this, they've received them in the mail so I can finally post this. So, if it's Mother's Day and you're scrambling RIGHT NOW to find something to make, here's your lucky blog post. This will take you all of 5 minutes to make.

My Momma, Aleda

My Step-Momma, Becky

My Mother-In-Law, Susie

As you read in our Healthy Finances post, Mike and I are really cutting back on spending. A LOT. One of those areas was gift giving. We only budgeted for buying gifts for Christmas, and even then we've limited how much we spend. So, with Mother's Day around the corner, I really had to get creative. I spent a lot of my time looking up creative ways to make something that my Moms would appreciate, but many of the DIY projects required me to buy specialty oils, exotic herbs, and other items that would just make me to spend too much money.

One of the items I was really set on making, since I have yet to meet a woman that doesn't love it, is a body scrub. Again, many of the recipes required oils and special salts. Then I found one the got more basic with Epsom Salt...which I just so happen to have under my cabinet.

Then I also remembered how great olive oil is for your skin. Plus we have a nice big batch of fresh herbs.

And with that thinking, this is how this recipe came about.

*This recipe utilizes a few natural ingredients, all of which provide certain benefits for your skin. EV Olive Oil is a natural, hypoallergenic way to moisturize your skin. Plus, it penetrates deeper than most moisturizers. Lemon juice naturally diminishes the appearance of scars and age spots. Rosemary tones and firms skin, reduces swelling and puffiness, and also aids in blood flow & circulation.

2. Pour your Epsom salt into your jar. Slowly add a little EV olive oil at a time, stirring in between every Tablespoon you add. Add until all of the salt absorbs some oil but stop before you have olive oil pooling in your container. It seemed like it was about a 2:1 ratio, salt:oil. The stirring action with the herb already placed inside your jar will break up the leaves of your herb and bring out the aroma. It smells AMAZING!

3. Add a small amount of lemon zest and a little bit of juice.

4. Seal your container and give as a gift!

This gift cost me $0 simply because I already had everything. If you were to buy everything up front, it would still cost you under $10 and you'd have MORE than enough Epsom salt to make scrubs for a few months. I only had about a cup and a half left of Epsom salt and that was split between three jars.

Hopefully this opens your eyes to the possibility of DIY gifts for an easy way to save money but also put your own hard work into making and giving gifts. I love knowing that everything my friends & family members will be getting was made with love and care by myself and not simply picked off a shelf and thrown into a shopping cart. Good luck.

If you have any great DIY gift ideas, comment below. I'd love to try it out!